A North Carolina political candidate was arrested Monday after a confrontation with Cary police, the culmination of an incident that began with threats on social media and included calls to WRAL to tell his side of the story. Jonathan D. Miller, a Libertarian Party candidate for a state Senate seat that covers much of Cary and other parts of western Wake County, was arrested around 3 p.m. after a lengthy standoff with police near Cary’s Lochmere neighborhood. Resurrection Lutheran School, a private school near the scene of the confrontation, was on a code yellow closure part of Monday. Police said Miller was charged with communicating threats, resisting officers and being armed to terrorize people, and is being held at the Wake County Detention Center. Miller’s X account, formerly known as Twitter, had posted several messages on social media Sunday night and throughout Monday. The posts spoke of suicidal feelings and included apparent references to seeking out shootouts with police. “The entire police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun,” read a post on Miller’s account Monday morning, followed by another post that read, “I have six shots and high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do, it’s going to be one hell of a show.” Officers had been watching the posts and tried to talk to him early Monday morning. According to the Cary Police Department, officers conducted a welfare check around 8:26 a.m. at Miller’s home on Glen Echo Lane, just off Kildaire Farm Road. Police eventually found him — “He had a firearm and they ordered him not to touch it, and he ran,” Cary Police Chief Terry Sult said during a news conference Monday — but the incident did not end in gunshots. The standoff lasted several hours Monday at Miller’s apartment complex and ended with his arrest. Police said no one was injured during the confrontation. “I was in a dark place,” Sult said. “I felt like I was on my last leg.” During the standoff, Miller called WRAL several times to tell his story and offer criticism of the Cary Police Department. He also made reference to the great attention his social media posts received. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential candidate, was among those who responded to Miller’s social media posts asking him not to take his own life or fight police. “Last night I was pretty depressed and suicidal, and I put a suicide note on X, and it went pretty viral,” he told WRAL during one of the calls. “Actually, millions of people have seen it. I usually get about 50 views on my post, but this one has gone super viral for me. I spent the whole night crying, angry, upset, depressed, and all the emotions. And this morning I was tired, but I had things I had to do. And I didn’t kill myself. “So I got up and made coffee,” Miller continued, “and I took two sips of coffee, and I went outside to smoke a cigarette, and while I was smoking, Un The police approached me, knew my name, saw that I had a revolver holstered on my hip, so he pulled out his gun and told me to keep his hands away from mine. I told him I was going to refuse that order and backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn around and run, and then I turned around and ran into the woods.” Miller, after hours of being chased, added: “They’ve been chasing me since this morning. They’re not very good at it. They should probably get more training in locating someone.” When asked why he called WRAL, Miller said, “I thought this story would probably make the news, so I thought maybe they would have some questions for me.” When asked if he was hurt, Miller told WRAL, “No. Not yet.” “Are you afraid of getting hurt?” a WRAL employee asked Miller. “A little bit,” he responded. When asked why he was hiding in the woods, Miller said, “Because I don’t want to get arrested and then put in a hospital.” He then said he doubted he would receive proper treatment in a hospital. “If I go to the hospital, I’ll spend about 15 to 30 seconds each day with a doctor, and that’ll be my time to talk about it,” Miller told WRAL. “He will write me a [prescription] on medication that doesn’t help, and in a few days I’ll be back where I am now.” When police approached, he told WRAL, “I’ve been running in the woods all day. You know, sometimes I can see them, sometimes I can hear them. They’re close, but they can’t find me.” He added that he hoped police would eventually give up the hunt. “I hope to wait them out and then disappear and never come back to Cary again,” Miller said. After police took Miller into custody, Cary’s police chief thanked WRAL for taking the calls. “We were able to do some training of whoever was talking to him, and we were able to monitor that conversation with WRAL’s permission,” Sult said. “It gave us some additional insight, very consistent with what we were talking to. we were trying. He closed the gap.” According to Cary police, Miller will not be charged after officers determined the gun he had on Monday was an antique firearm, which is not covered by statute. Miller is running for the seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Gale Adcock. GOP candidate Philip Hensley is also running for the seat. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Suicide at 800-273-8255. Veterans can press “1” after dialing 988 to connect directly to the Veterans Crisis Lifeline. For text messages, veterans should continue texting the Veterans Crisis Lifeline short code: 838255.
